In a general sense, the invention is directed to systems and methods for creating lesions in the interior regions of the human body. In a more particular sense, the invention is directed to systems and methods for ablating heart tissue for treating cardiac conditions.
Physicians frequently make use of catheters today in medical procedures to gain access into interior regions of the body. In some procedures, the catheter carries an energy transmitting element on its distal tip to ablate body tissues.
In such procedures, the physician must establish stable and uniform contact between the energy transmitting element and the tissue to be ablated. Upon establishing contact, the physician must then carefully apply ablating energy to the element for transmission to the tissue.
The need for precise control over the transmission of ablation energy is especially critical during catheter-based procedures for ablating heart tissue. These procedures, called electrophysiology therapy, are becoming increasingly more widespread for treating cardiac rhythm disturbances, called arrhythmias. Cardiac ablation procedures typically use radio frequency (RF) energy to form a lesion in heart tissue.
The principal objective of the invention is to provide systems and methods for monitoring and reliably controlling the application of energy to ablate body tissue, thereby providing therapeutic results in a consistent and predictable fashion.
The invention provides systems and methods that provide reliable control over tissue heating and ablation procedures using temperature sensing.
The systems and methods heat or ablate body tissue by positioning an electrode to transmit heat or ablation energy to a tissue region. The systems and methods measure a first temperature using a temperature sensing, element associated with the electrode. The systems and methods also measure a second temperature using a temperature sensing element associated with the electrode. The systems and methods process at least one of the first and second temperatures to derive a prediction of maximum temperature of the tissue region.
In a preferred embodiment, the systems and methods generate an output that controls the transmission of the heating or ablation energy based, at least in part, upon the maximum tissue temperature prediction.
Other features and advantages of the inventions are set forth in the following Description and Drawings, as well as in the appended claims.